Arctic Sea Ice : Forum
Cryosphere => Greenland and Arctic Circle => Topic started by: Espen on July 25, 2013, 03:57:56 PM
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I have done some studies with C. H. Ostenfeldt Gletscher one of the very large outlet glaciers in the North of Greenland, and I realized the not so big giant anymore retreated up to 24 km over 14 years from 1999.
Please click on the image to enlarge! It is very large
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C. H. Ostenfeldt Gletscher update, not much happening since May 2013, but still signs of retreat.
Please click on image to start animation!
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C. H. Ostenfeldt Gletscher is on the move:
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C. H. Ostenfeldt Gletscher is preparing for a large calving, the width of this calving front is 10 km!:
Click on image to enlarge!
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Nice spotting. Seems odd for mid-January?
Monitoring is a lot easier than in the olden days -- 1990 -- when people had nothing more than the occasional photo from an airplane.
And that was a big break-through from the 1920's when they didn't even have those. One of the applications vindicated Bretz's theory of the Missoula Floods and formation of the Grand Coulee, though a lot of geologists didn't believe the first pictures either, for 40 years! Very similar to the treatment Wegener got with plate tectonics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Harlen_Bretz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Harlen_Bretz)
North Greenland Glacier Velocities and Calf Ice Production
AK Higgins
Polarforschung 60 (1): 1-23, 1990
http://epic.awi.de/28269/1/Polarforsch1990_1_1.pdf (http://epic.awi.de/28269/1/Polarforsch1990_1_1.pdf)
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C. H. Ostenfeldt Gletscher together with Harder Gletscher (right) was influenced by the same full moon arctivity around July 20 2016 as Ryder Gletscher:
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C. H. Ostenfeldt Gletscher is relatively active compared to many other Arctic Glaciers this season, the left arm of the glacier is now free from the butt rest further ahead (rock), and the left calving front will presumably be retreating down along the Nunatak (island) in the middle of the glacier.
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Temperature at C. H. Ostenfeldt Gletscher:
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boom!
Not only is the ice at the entrance breaking apart, there is a lot of surface melt as well.
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I am intrigued by this large cigar shaped berg that's been moving up and down Victoria Fjord when the fast ice breaks. It measures approximately 12 km by 2km.
This summer it has been moving a lot.
I have had a look back through other years on sentinel and also on Worldview. Sometimes it pivots about a central point. It has migrated towards the top of the fjord but I wonder is it a piece that calved not around 1999/2000 ?
Looking at Espen's 1999 image, I wonder could it have broken from the magenta circled area ?
Is the berg we are now looking at, one that began life 19 years ago ?
I'll attach a few images going back through the years.
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Early image from worldview in 2001
More or less same place on 24 July 2003
Then it starts a big move end July & August 2003 (GIF of 7 day movement from Aug 9th)
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More images Aug 2005
August 2008
Sept 2015
Aug 2017
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The sun has returned to Victoria Fjord and here is that large cigar shaped piece embedded in the sea ice after overwintering.
It's located about 25 kms from the mouth of the fjord. Who knows will it escape into the Nares Strait this year ?